Orlando holidays advice please!

[Paperandpen123]

I have a few options but I can’t work out what’s best. Any advice welcome! Family of 4 kids all under 8 (over 3).

Staying onsite like the animal Kingdom lodges for two weeks is approx £3.9k no food included

Staying off site in a villa is approx £2k but we need to add £800-900 for car hire plus car park costs for each park.

We will go to universal for 1-2 days also so if we stay on site uber / taxi.

Theres a part of me that thinks staying onsite is easier, free transport lots of food options however we will have to eat out all the time, no making food at a villa and no alone time all sleeping in one room.

Im very torn! Any one with advice who has done either option, pros and cons?

We always used to stay in a villa but prefer to be onsite now. The traffic getting to Disney from the usual villa locations has become horrendous in the last few years and you can be stuck for a really long time!!

Animal Kingdom is a deluxe as I’m sure you’re aware so there are cheaper options available!! We’ve most recently started at pop century (2a 2c for 2 weeks) and loved it!! The skyliner is an amazing way of getting to Epcot and Hollywood studios.

@Tacocatgoatcheesepizza do you think its worth paying more for the hotels? Someone mentioned POP and AOA which I will have a look at.

How much time do you spend in your room?

I've done both but would always stay onsite now and it's worth the extra if you can afford it.

Biggest pro is the extra magic hours. You cannot underestimate the benefits of being able to get into a park an hour earlier you can do a lot of rides in this time.

Transport also a huge benefit, no traffic, free parking (if you drive) and free buses/skyliner/boars if you don't want to at all.

Theming and service also fabulous. The hotel is part of the holiday.

Enjoy whatever you decide?

You're not going to be in the room very long but you'll be at the hotel so it's about what facilities and environment you need or want. I'd love to stay at AKL, having visited, it's really amazing. The disney transportation is very good and suits us as we don't drive abroad. We are about to try Pop Century this year having only stayed at the deluxe ( old key West, saratoga springs and Boardwalk) and moderate( port Orleans riverside) before . The only thing which we've decided is a deal breaker is having a quick service/ takeaway onsite ( and in the aircon!) which the AKL has.

@NineteenForever yes good point, need to scope out aircon room if we stay onsite as we are thinking summer.

if we stay in a cheaper hotel option we can most definitely add some food options

I would always stay onsite.
It's a lovely experience.
The Disney transport is brilliant and you can pop to one park in the morning and a different one in the afternoon/evening if you want. It's so easy.
Also pop back to the hotel for an afternoon swim, nap etc.
If you go to one park and change your mind just get the bus to a different one.
No driving, trying to find a car park space, no long walk to the park entrance.
It's so much more relaxing this way!
Have fun

We spend very little time in our hotel room so have never thought it was worth paying for a deluxe. We’ve stayed at Caribbean Beach a couple of times, which is a moderate and also on the skyliner and I love it there although dh actually preferred Pop Century. I honestly love the skyliner so much that I would always look to choose a hotel on it as I find it so much better that the buses!

We bought croissants etc for breakfast and had a mix of meals - Applebees was very cheap and nice enough. To be honest, even the leaky cauldron in universal was reasonable prices. Staying on site it much easier imo.

I'd recommend French Quarter (the smallest moderate so a lovely hotel but easy to get around) - we did a grocery delivery via Water Butlers and I brought other snacks/pain au chocolate so food costs were less. It was great not having to worry about transport. We didn't do Universal but in future I'd consider moving to one of their deluxe hotels for a couple of nights because you get a free express pass to skip queues.

I’ve always stayed in a villa but a long time ago so traffic may have been easier. I liked not sharing with my kids!

Not sure about Disney hotels, but generally in the US they have a fridge and microwave so you could have food options.

You could order some basic groceries and have them delivered to your hotel room. Not sure what’s down there, but Walmart, Target, Publix are probably some of the main ones. You could get basic breakfast/lunch stuff and snacks.

@Paperandpen123 all rooms in Florida have aircon! There’d be a rebellion if they didn’t! It’s as hot as the hobs of hell!

I hated Animal Kingdom Lodge. The rooms were small, dark and poky. We spent 2 weeks with a 5 and 3 year old really disliking AKL and we moved to The Polynesian for our third week. SO much nicer! I wouldn’t pay a premium to stay at AKL but I would for the Poly!

However, we usually have a villa and I’ve never bothered staying on-site since that one time. The kids loved having their own pool and (usually) Disney themed bedrooms. With the cost of parking at the parks it can sometimes be cheaper to use Uber rather than rent a car these days.

Just to add to my previous post, re food we usually still do a trip to Walmart and get a few snacks etc. We’ve never had a microwave in a Disney hotel room but there’s a fridge so we’ve always bought milk and cereal for the boys to have for breakfast and made sure we have things like cookies, croissants etc etc available too.

The nicest ‘cheap’ on-site hotel room I’ve stayed at was actually endless summer at universal! We had a one bed room suite that was absolutely perfect - that had a microwave!

Edit - you’ll also find that a lot of the meals are so big you don’t need 3 proper meals a day! We often had light breakfast, a couple of snacks through the day and then either a big lunch or tea, that was enough.

So many good hints and tips!! Thank you all so much. I have some more googling to do!

We've been 6 times the first time just over 20 years ago, stayed off site viall with own pool on golf course near to shops etc, parks 30/40 mi drive

Last time we went 10 years ago did the same

However, if rides is important, stay osite imo

We wet to see the USA and theme park was only pat of it but going to the beaches, seeig the shuttles take off, air boats, malls, Tampa sands white sadny beaches - overnight in miami. But if kids are very young, then onsite is best and you are ot confident driving

Raods are easy but the first couple of times we returned home/viall just as it got dark - easier to drive then more confident came back night times, swim, driks

I would always choose a villa. We always chose a villa with a games room and private pool. It means that if one child wants to do something different it's not a problem.
We had a mix of ages boys/girl and so it just reduced any tensions. It's easy to underestimate just how tiring Orlando can be . The freedom for children to relax in their own rooms or be able to muck around in the pool if they want to without having to bother about sun loungers etc is wonderful.

We have only stayed offsite - 4 of us in one room/2 beds for 2 weeks is not really a holiday for us! It seems cheaper but the on-site food is overpriced and (imo) of a poorer quality than other restaurants. Also depending on where your villa is, I think buses to and from animal kingdom lodge will be quite time consuming. Our villa was max 10 mins drive from animal kingdom (there’s a shortcut off 192 past the McDonald’s avoiding the traffic) - but it’s quite a way from there to many of the other parks! I’d quite like the buzz of being onsite but I don’t think it has many practical advantages!

Also part of the holiday for us is browsing in Walmart/target/publix!

Some onsite hotels have small kitchens. We stayed at Saratoga Springs last time. We were able to self cater a little and had a balcony to sit in in the evening while the DC slept. Art of Animation have bigger suite style rooms. There is a sister hotel to Saratoga but the name escapes me. It is also suite style accommodation.

I don’t think we would ever do a villa. As lovely as they look, we preferred the faculties of the hotels onsite, transport etc. we never have hired a car. If we were doing Walmart etc, we just used Uber etc. super cheap and much cheaper than a car.

I've been going to Florida for a VERY long time (lived there as a child), and have never stayed onsite (actually, my parents did do that once, but I was very young, don't really remember anything about it). BUT, going to Florida for us isn't just about Orlando or the parks, and we tend to only spend a few days in Orlando (if at all). I think it's all about how important the whole experince is for you, it's a very magical place, and impossible to do it all (time AND costs would prevent you!). The days are very tiring, and I value having a villa to be able to have our own space, our own pool, and some 'normal' food.

I don't think either option is a bad choice. If you think this is the once and only time you'll got to Florida, and you want to spend 2 weeks at the parks, then maybe stay onsite, literally do everything. But only you know what your and your family's needs/wants are. My DS would quite happily spend every single day of a holiday on rides and water parks, but my DD, DH and I have generally had enough fairly quickly. I tend to go FULL ON for the short time we're there (sometimes even just taking one child back with me when DH has had enough for the day, and we want to go back and try to fit a bit more in).

We're planning our Easter trip at the moment - my DC are older now (18 and 16), and we've still all got must do's to tick off :)

I vote for neither! We don't like staying on site and I don't care for villas either. We stay in resorts with serviced apartments so you have the best of both worlds with a cleaner, fresh bedding and towels, full kitchen and seperate bedrooms. For example floridays, bahama Bay, holiday inn resort orange lake are ones we've stayed in and recommend :)